Well, it's official: after more than 230 days off the basketball court, Caitlin Clark is back.
The Indiana Fever guard made her senior Team USA debut Wednesday alongside Kiki Iriafen, Rae Burrell, Angel Reese, Monique Billings, and Paige Bueckers. Clark logged 17 points and 12 assists in 19 minutes on the floor, and scored her first points in 8 months in just under 1.5 minutes. She landed eight of her points and eight of her assists in the first half of the game.
Bueckers logged nine points, four rebounds, three assists, and one steal in 14 minutes, and Reese clocked six points, eight rebounds, and one assist in 17 minutes.
Team USA put in a powerful performance against Senegal, and walked away from the game with 110-46 win over their opponents. Rhyne Howard hit six three-pointers to end the game with 21 points, five rebounds, two assists, and one steal, and as a whole, the team shot 50% from the field and 54% from deep.
Team USA made changes ahead of the game
Aliyah Boston and Sonia Citron were initially set to play alongside the rest of the squad, but both had to pull out due to lower extremity injuries they suffered during the second season of Unrivaled. The pair were replaced by Billings, who has previous Team USA experience, and Burrell.
USA's performance was marked by an exceptionally unselfish and balanced team. Many of the players only recently finished Unrivaled — Team USA held training camp Friday, just days after the Unrivaled semifinals and championship match — and appeared light and easy on their feet. The team effectively communicated, and the large number of assists wracked up by multiple players indicates the squad has already spent time gelling and learning one another.
That bodes well for the team's future. Team USA has already qualfiied for the FIBA World Cup, which will be held in Berlin in September, but not everyone who played this week will be on the team who competes in Berlin, or on the team that competes in the 2028 Los Angeles Oly
The game was not without its drama. Senegal's head coach Cheikh Sarr was ejected around seven minutes into the third quarter after he received two technical fouls for complaining about what he believed was a non-call of a foul committed by Howard after she and Senegal's Victorine Thiaw had contact.
Team USA will next play Puerto Rico on March 12 and then will play Italy on March 14.